Boys Don T Cry

"Boys Don't Cry" is a lovely, haunting pop song by English group, the Cure. Boys Don't Cry is also the name of an English band that doesn't have a cure for being neither lovely nor haunting. Boys may not cry, but critics are bound to feel like screaming--especially when subjected to an overlong set of the kind of dressed-up bar-band rock cliches this perfunctory quintet performed in a nearly empty Palace on Thursday night. SCREEEECH!

Midway through "Becoming Chaz," the raw and revelatory documentary about Chaz (nee Chastity) Bono's physical transition from female to male, Chaz visits his Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor and her partner to show them the results of his recent chest surgery. The women, who loaned Chaz the money to have his breasts removed, have prepared a lovely brunch and while Chaz chows down, he eagerly describes the side effects of his transition, which includes regular doses of testosterone. Not only does he find himself increasingly unable to abide women's "gabbing," he tells them, his sex drive has increased enormously.

"I hate my name, I'm thinking of changing it," gawky, awkward Candace confesses to the dishy young man who takes the seat next to her at a rowdy Midwestern bar. Handsome, buoyant Brandon Teena knows just what she means. "Sometimes," he says, all casual confidence, "it helps."

"YOU felt like a monster," says Ryan Phillippe, describing how he felt barging into Muslim homes on Ramadan, one of the holiest holidays. "We were there in full gear, with these assault rifles, on what's akin to their Christmas. We were barging into people's actual homes to shoot those scenes. I felt incredibly uncomfortable and ashamed at the time." They weren't really looking for insurgents in Morocco, which was doubling for Iraq, just acting. For his role in "Stop-Loss," directed by Kimberly Peirce ("Boys Don't Cry")

The mother of a murdered cross-dressing young woman whose story inspired the movie "Boys Don't Cry" deserves more compensation for her daughter's death, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday. In a scathing ruling that demanded a larger damage award against Richardson County and its sheriff, Charles Laux, the state's highest court declared a lower court had erred in awarding just $17,361 to JoAnn Brandon for official negligence in the death of her daughter, Teena Brandon.

When Kimberly Peirce first read the account of Teena Brandon's murder in the Village Voice in 1994, she knew she had to do something. Barely 21 years old, Teena Brandon was shot dead with two others in a farmhouse just outside Falls City, Neb. On the surface, this sort of multiple murder wouldn't necessarily make national headlines. Except that Teena Brandon, a.k.a. Brandon Teena, was killed for posing as a man. "I felt this immediate kinship with Brandon," says Peirce, 30.

Some people positively hate the hit single, "I Wanna Be a Cowboy." And it is easy to ridicule the tune by Boys Don't Cry, an obscure English band that makes its local debut tonight at the Palace, then plays Magic Mountain on Friday and Fender's in Long Beach on Saturday. Does the song have substance? Does it make sense? Is it melodic? Are the vocals high quality? The answer to all of the above is, arguably, no.

Events on the Internet Today * 6 p.m.: Teenmag.com is hosting a chat with two members of the musical group 'N Sync. But you'll have to wait until tonight to find out which two. http://www.teenmag.com/star_stuff/musicmania/nsync_chat.html Friday * 11 a.m.: Meet Larry Moss, acting coach to Oscar nominees Michael Clarke Duncan ("The Green Mile") and Hilary Swank ("Boys Don't Cry"). http://cnn.com/chat Saturday * 6 p.m.: Get your fix of the Cowboy Junkies at this concert. http://www.hob.

Hilary Swank, self-proclaimed "girly girl," remembers her first time. She was in the lobby of New York's Tribeca Film Center, decked out in her husband's clothes, her long, blond hair tucked under a $1 cowboy hat from a secondhand store. She was waiting to audition for the lead role in the film "Boys Don't Cry." The doorman phoned the director and producers upstairs and said, "There's this guy here. He says he has a reading. Should I send him up?"

Once again James Pinkerton plays film critic ("And the Oscar Goes to . . . Nihilism," Commentary, March 28) and gets it all wrong. The beauty of "American Beauty" is precisely that it is a work of art, and as such it challenges us to think. Yet for Pinkerton such "transgressive" art is to be tolerated only when "confined to literature and museums," where few notice. He is terrified that the film is a "cultural breakout" that will speak to a mass audience. Its message, which he finds so disturbing, is that material wealth, a fine home and a well-paying career are no guarantee of spiritual satisfaction, that the shiny but mind-numbing veneer of the American Dream may conceal an aching void for only so long.

Much is made in entertainment punditry of the Golden Globes' presumed status as a barometer for the Oscars. The Globes are not a bad indicator, but it's worth remembering that both events are essentially popularity contests. The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. has fewer than 100 voting members; the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has about 6,000 voters. Both shows involve highly subjective decisions about roughly the same pool of movies and performances. Because the Globes nominates 10 movies, 10 men and 10 women in two categories (drama and musical or comedy)

Picture this: Inside the Kodak Theatre on the evening of March 23, 2003, Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Renee Zellweger wait eagerly for Denzel Washington to open the envelope and reveal this year's best actress. "And the winner is ... Nia Vardalos!" OK, it is far-fetched.

Neil Young, tall, lumbering with longish gray hair and prominent mutton chops, looked a bit out of place inside the glittering Regent Beverly Wilshire ballroom Tuesday night. That is, until he took the stage to talk about freedom. After a video montage on Young's prolific musical and philanthropic career, he told the crowd that "to protect our freedoms, it seems we're going to have to relinquish some of our freedoms for a short period of time." But he added, "There is a law to make sure we get them back."

The mother of a murdered cross-dressing young woman whose story inspired the movie "Boys Don't Cry" deserves more compensation for her daughter's death, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday. In a scathing ruling that demanded a larger damage award against Richardson County and its sheriff, Charles Laux, the state's highest court declared a lower court had erred in awarding just $17,361 to JoAnn Brandon for official negligence in the death of her daughter, Teena Brandon.

In reinvestigating the "Heaven's Gate" controversy ("The Dubious Anniversary of Cimino's 'Heaven's Gate,' "(Dec. 12), Patrick Goldstein points out that the film is commonly used as a type of benchmark for the passing of one era of American cinema (the challenging '70s) to another (the reactionary '80s and beyond). Unfortunately, Michael Cimino was made a scapegoat for a conflict that has incorrectly been laid at the feet of "rebel" filmmakers and "bean-counting" producers, when neither are to blame.

"Stuart Little" was one of this past Christmas' biggest movies. Now Columbia TriStar Home Video hopes the charming family film based on the E.B. White classic will repeat its success on video and DVD this Easter. "Stuart Little," which has earned more than $139 million, arrived in video stores this week, just four months after its theatrical release.

Midway through "Becoming Chaz," the raw and revelatory documentary about Chaz (nee Chastity) Bono's physical transition from female to male, Chaz visits his Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor and her partner to show them the results of his recent chest surgery. The women, who loaned Chaz the money to have his breasts removed, have prepared a lovely brunch and while Chaz chows down, he eagerly describes the side effects of his transition, which includes regular doses of testosterone. Not only does he find himself increasingly unable to abide women's "gabbing," he tells them, his sex drive has increased enormously.

In reinvestigating the "Heaven's Gate" controversy ("The Dubious Anniversary of Cimino's 'Heaven's Gate,' "(Dec. 12), Patrick Goldstein points out that the film is commonly used as a type of benchmark for the passing of one era of American cinema (the challenging '70s) to another (the reactionary '80s and beyond). Unfortunately, Michael Cimino was made a scapegoat for a conflict that has incorrectly been laid at the feet of "rebel" filmmakers and "bean-counting" producers, when neither are to blame.

Once again James Pinkerton plays film critic ("And the Oscar Goes to . . . Nihilism," Commentary, March 28) and gets it all wrong. The beauty of "American Beauty" is precisely that it is a work of art, and as such it challenges us to think. Yet for Pinkerton such "transgressive" art is to be tolerated only when "confined to literature and museums," where few notice. He is terrified that the film is a "cultural breakout" that will speak to a mass audience. Its message, which he finds so disturbing, is that material wealth, a fine home and a well-paying career are no guarantee of spiritual satisfaction, that the shiny but mind-numbing veneer of the American Dream may conceal an aching void for only so long.

If Denzel Washington wins best actor for "The Hurricane" he'll be the third actor to win in this category playing a boxer. Wallace Beery won best actor of 1931 playing a pugilist in "The Champ," and Robert De Niro picked up best actor of 1980 for his role as Jake La Motta in "Raging Bull." * Six of the acting nominees--Russell Crowe, Michael Caine, Jude Law, Janet McTeer, Toni Collette and Samantha Morton--are non-Americans who play Americans.